The thunder rolled away with its hollow song, and when it was gone, all that was heard was the big rain drops hitting the house unflaggingly.
Marron breathed heavily, not moving her eyes from the dark figure in the door frame. Oob, not daring to move since his ears had been filled with that deafening scream, tried to smile.
- It's just me...
- What are you doing there?!
Suddenly, the maiden pulled her blanket over her almost entirely naked body, blushing furiously.
- I... The storm... I was just... Checking if...
- I'm three years older than you, I can take care of myself during a storm! Go back to bed, Oob.
- S... Sorry...
A lightning struck somewhere over the ocean, enlightening the bedroom a little and showing the youth's ashamed face during half a second, just enough for this image to print itself in Marron's mind, before he disappeared noiselessly.
The young woman stared at the doorframe for a few seconds, bewildered by this sudden disappearance. Slowly laying down, she wondered if she had been too hard with the boy, who had surely meant no harm. "Oh well... I'll apologize tomorrow." She glided her arms under the pillow, buried her face in it despite the heat, and soon dozed off, the storm suddenly not being an obstacle to sleep.
- So the woman was blond and she didn't mind bleeding, slowly repeated Bulma, her eyes quickly moving from Trunks to Goten.
- Actually... began the younger hybrid, thinking deeply. Actually, she... Seemed to enjoy it...
Trunks slapped his friend across the head.
- Shut up, moron.
- What?!
Goten robbed his sore head, confused and offended, but added nothing more. Bulma sighed, looked up at her husband.
- And the guy has no ki. Android?
- Maybe, said the Saiyan, also deep in thoughts. Black hair? Young?
His son nodded. Vegeta looked at his wife, as if they now held a part of the answer and he was waiting for her to solve the remaining mystery. Bulma stared at him, bemused, before finally lightning up.
- C-17! But... After so many years, why would he come back like this?
- I don't know, but he's no match for even Goten now.
- Eh! I'm strong!
Trunks gave him a friendly punch on the arm and the two childish men began to fight, apparently believing the whole thing was fixed. Sighing, Bulma decided to just count them out.
- But... That woman...
- The robot found a girl stupid enough to fall in love with him, so what? snorted Vegeta, already on his way back to the gravity room. Stop disturbing my training with such little business, woman.
- But they want the Dragon Balls, imbecile! Maybe they have some evil plan to take over the world!
- We'll just stop them, if it's the case.
She would have replied, but he was gone now. Upset, she gave a sharp glance at the fighting duo.
- Will you ever grow up?! You two are as immature as three year old kids!
- Thanks ma'am! replied Goten as dodging Trunks' punch.
With an irritated rattle worthy of her husband, the business woman left the room, which was soon ravaged by the two friends' 'game'. As she made her way to her laboratory, Bulma's thoughts grew in confusion and stress. "I have the feeling I know that woman but... Who is she?"
- That was so smart, breaking through the windows like that!
- Think you would have done any better? Now shut up. I have to remember where they live...
- Right, now you're going to get us lost. Who were those kids anyway?
- The one with the black hair was surely another son of Goku. The other one was Vegeta's son.
- ...Vege-what?
- The prince of Saiyans!
- What are you talking about?!
- Shut up. I think it's that...
- And what do you mean, Goku's other son?!
C-17 felt a terribly heavy weight lying on his shoulders as his 'partner' kept on talking. He considered dropping her and flying away as her old body would crush into some roof or some road, but then remembered the deal with Kaïo and Emna and cursed under his breathe.
Then she sneezed and it was dark purple hair that danced before his face. He felt her muscles relaxing as her head turned from left to right slowly.
- What's going on? asked the soft voice of Lunch.
Somehow, it didn't relieve C-17 of the exhausting weight mentioned before.
The storm was far from calming down. The house was shaking with the powerful wind and lightning seemed to multiplying, both in number and violence, while the rain grew in density.
Marron had awaken only a few minutes after falling asleep and didn't dare looking outside. Alright, she had lived storms before, but she couldn't remember one as strong as this one. She wished her parents were there, or at least Muten Roshi. She knew they couldn't do anything against weather, but their single presence was enough to make her feel sage. And now she was alone in this old and fragile little house, that could easily be blown away by the wind...
Thunder fell heavily from the sky, made her shiver violently. She whimpered involontarily, bit her bottom lip afterwards to not repeat such a childish sound. But her fingers tightened their grip on the blanket and she noticed how tensed she was.
- What the... It's just a storm!
Through the loud song of rain and the rolling chant of thunder, the wind howled, embraced Kame House and made it tremble. Unable to handle more alone, Marron got up and flew toward her parents' room.
C-17 and Lunch found the Son's house empty, terribly quiet, as if even them could feel the absence of the noisy inhabitants. The now purple haired woman looked at the neat rooms with gentle curiosity, while her companion was ravaging them behind her, looking for the Dragon Balls detector.
- Couldn't you help me?! he asked with irritation after turning up and down the bedroom of a teenager, probably Goten (he guessed so for the numerous posters of martial arts figures, movies, women and popular bands that decorated the walls).
She tilted her head to the side slightly, bemused.
- But what are you doing?
- Forget it...
They moved to the main bedroom, which was as dark and clean as the precedents. Not taking notice of nothing, the annoyed cyborg began to open and clear out the drawers, then proceeded to a similar operation with the closet. Meanwhile, apparently not shocked by this wild behavior, Lunch approached a little night table where she picked a singular object that had caught her attention and stimulated her curiosity. While C-17 began to pull sheets and blankets from the bed after which he would pick up the mattress and shove it aside, she manipulated the object carefully, her huge eyes wide with attention.
- What an odd thing...
She pressed a little button on the top and the screen lighted up, causing her to exclaim out loud. C-17 held up his head immediately, his cold eyes scanning for a problem, then he saw it. Within a second he had jumped to her side and picked the radar from her hands.
- YES!! We got it now!
- The Dragon Balls detector?
- Of course! Let's go now.
He had been shaken by a powerful wave of joy at the latter discovery, that even his usual apathetic composure hadn't been able to restrain, and even after rapidly calming down, a shinning light brightened his eyes and he couldn't help but smirking with unhidden satisfaction.
Lunch obviously had no idea about what was going on, but she followed him outside, guessing everything would be explained soon. Once being caressed by the vivid though soft wind again, C-17 observed the screen meticulously before turning his face to her.
- There is one in the house, I'll get it and then we'll get that one.
He pointed a tiny dot, lost among six others on a grid electronic map that made no sense to the other.
- But why do you want them?
Losing his good mood, the cyborg sighed heavily. Without giving any kind of answers, he headed back into the silent gloom of the deserted house. It didn't take long before his slender figure stood out of the shadows, but that little period of time had been enough for Lunch to sneeze, therefore to change into her blond self, whom C-17 was relieved to find. The other one was surely nice (too nice), but he preferred this one, even though she bossed him around and kept calling him 'kid'. He held one the orange sphere, in which four little stars were seen, and she nodded.
- Nice job, she approved. Let's get done with this quickly.
- Sure.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, so casually that he actually started back a little before wrapping his own arm around her waist for greater security, then he took off slowly, shoving the detector into his back pocket with his free hand, for the other one held the first Dragon Ball of the serie of seven.
